Miami Horror

While the influences of Prince and New Order are more than apparent in Miami Horror's work, the Australian four-piece has built its own sturdy electronic legs on which to stand — as evidenced by its debut effort, last year's Illumination. Instead of regurgitating the ghosts of electronic music's past, the band creates poppy masterpieces along the lines of Phoenix, but with a darker touch reminiscent of Death From Above 1979. The band's backstory isn't unlike that of many of its MSTRKRFT-styled contemporaries: Bored producer — in this case, the Melbourne-bred Benjamin Plant — makes bedroom beats and remixes tracks and subsequently forms a group around his original material. The live instrumentation, though, is hardly an afterthought: Miami Horror is a great combination of the DJ, his dance floor, the band and its stage.